Extended hearings for Newcastle Catholic church abuse inquiry

Commissioner Margaret Cunneen at the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle.

Supplied by AJM Photography

An inquiry into child sex abuse and the Catholic Church in the New South Wales Hunter Valley is sitting in Sydney today to hear further evidence.

Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen is overseeing the public inquiry, which has looked at how the church handled complaints about two former paedophile priests in the Maitland-Newcastle diocese, Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher.

Church officials and some of the most senior police officers in New South Wales gave evidence at public hearings in Newcastle earlier this year.

Monsignor John Usher and Father Brian Lucas are expected to be witnesses at the inquiry today.

The New South Wales inquiry, is separate from the Federal Royal Commission into child sex abuse.